Japanese aircraft leading edges?

[Skyraider3D]

From a similar discussion on the J-aircraft forum:

The official regulation was dated 12 September 1942 but the bands may have appeared before this and the bands first introduced in the homeland, possibly following the Doolittle raid, may have been red.

On 18 April 1942, the Japanese HQ discovered that the US insignia with the red dot confused Japanese AA gunners. They began to place large white squares and 'bandages' behind/around the Japanese national insignia for "Homeland Defense" aircraft. Some of these "Homeland Defense" white markings found their way to the South Pacific.

Head on tests revealed they needed some other quick identification of who was who...and both the Japanese Army and Navy tested RED leading edge stripes on aircraft.

On 11 Sept 1942 the official order came from Imperial Headquarters for the IJA-IJN to have YELLOW leading edge stripes. The order was sent out on 12 Sept 1942 according to the date stamp below. Japanese researcher "Summer" located this order recently, in the Japanese equivalent to the US NARA.

Applications of yellow stripes were noted in the 'field' in October 1942.

The yellow bands were 20cm wide and indeed spanned from the wingroot to exactly half the wingspan.